He’s not exactly a marquee movie star. In fact, his name might just barely ring a bell. But plunk Bruce Campbell down in front of an energized audience of movie geeks and you just might think Elvis has entered the building.

That’s what it felt like when the actor/producer took the stage after the “Evil Dead” premiere at last month’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. The crowd’s deep, drawn-out chanting (“Bruuuuce”) could almost be mistaken for booing, but the crackling energy and ecstatic applause inside the theater made it clear that Campbell, the star of the 1981 cult horror classic “The Evil Dead” that inspired the remake, is nothing short of a hero.

Not that he sees himself that way. After acting his way (he says badly) through the original film and its two sequels, 1987’s “The Evil Dead II” and “Army of Darkness” in 1992, Campbell is more than happy to step behind the camera as producer and let a group of fresh, young performers (Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, among others) confront the demons that turn their peaceful cabin retreat into a bloodbath.

In an interview the day after the film’s premiere, Campbell seemed perfectly comfortable with his status as a B movie icon. “You start B movies as an actor because that’s how you get in the movies, and you end in B movies when your career is over. It’s a logical place to be. I just never left,” he said.

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He’s also thrilled for the success that Sam Raimi, the director of the original trilogy and his childhood friend, has found making A-list Hollywood movies like the “Spider-Man” trilogy and “Oz the Great and Powerful. “Sam is swimming with the biggest of the big dogs. He is a big dog. Nothing could make me happier,” Campbell said. Their long-standing friendship guarantees Campbell a cameo in all of Raimi’s films, and also lets him get away with teasing the respected director, as he did on the “Oz” set. “The crew members were looking at me like, dude, what are you sassing Sam for? And I’m like, ‘You don’t know anything. I went to high school with this guy!’ ”

Campbell, Raimi and producer Rob Tapert have reunited to produce their 21st century take on the graphic comic horror film that launched their careers, only this time they have a budget to upgrade the acting talent and effects. A remake also means potentially offending the franchise’s loyal fans, something Campbell had to deal with the moment the project was announced. “They were visceral. They were loud. They were nasty. They were worried that everything would be ruined,” he said.

But Campbell insisted nobody could respect the franchise more. “This is the first movie that ever got us into the film business so, as violently as opposed as a fan is, or careful as they are with this ‘Evil Dead’ franchise, what do you think we are? We’re going to take more time with it than the average fan, I can tell you that right now,” Campbell firmly stated.

“But we appreciate their zeal. We appreciate the fact that they care enough to say, ‘Don’t screw this up.’ Based on the reaction last night, we didn’t screw them over,” he added with his signature biting wit.

Indeed, the audience seemed to approve, bursting into applause at the abrupt end to the film’s taut opening scene. And there were plenty more opportunities to squirm and squeal throughout. “That’s the goal when you make a horror film; they’ve got to react. If they don’t react, you’ve failed,” he said.

Much of the original’s cult appeal comes from the earnest, low-budget special effects Raimi envisioned for his story about a group of college kids vacationing in an isolated cabin who discover a mysterious book and unwittingly unleash evil spirits. While there was no shortage of horror competition in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, Campbell believes that Raimi’s time-consuming efforts to concoct outrageous, if somewhat homemade effects made “The Evil Dead” the one to endure.

“It was before green screen. It was before blue screen. So we just had to figure out a way to do it. I think that’s what set it apart. The audience knew that there was somebody behind the camera that had a little more something going on,” Campbell asserted.

Even with all the new technological tools at their disposal, Campbell and his collaborators insisted on finding just the right person to direct the remake. They landed on Fede Alvarez, a Uruguayan special effects guru with just a few short films under his belt. What he lacked in experience, the producers felt he made up in visual sensibility and maturity. “This movie is more sophisticated than the original. Fede brings a really interesting sensibility,” Campbell said.

While the characters and their reasons for visiting the cabin differ from the original, there were a few elements that had to be carried over. For Campbell, it was the sound of a “very dead, creepy subtle wind” in the cabin’s basement. “Whenever you go in that room, the original sound is there, and only there,” he said. “You can barely hear it. But I can hear it.”

The rusted skeleton of the 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that Campbell’s character drove in the original films also makes an appearance, as it does — in one form or another — in all of Raimi’s films. But Campbell is less than sympathetic toward the director’s affinity for the oversized clunker. “The car, I don’t give a crap about. That’s Sam’s. Sam’s obsession with that stupid car,” he said in the jokingly critical way that only a lifelong friend can get away with.

While the next generation of “Evil Dead” fans is indoctrinated, Campbell, Raimi and Tapert are already developing the script for the sequel and, possibly, making it a trilogy. Though the story will take a different direction, Campbell has no intention of giving up the freedom that comes with the B movie sensibility.

“I have no problem with B movies. You can make more interesting movies. You can make twist endings. You can kill your lead character. You can cut their arm off,” he said. “If a studio made this movie, it would not be this movie. It wouldn’t be anything close to this movie. Thank God.”